One of the things under discussion at the ScOONs meeting on 5 May was the possible adoption of a logo for the group.
It should be noted that this topic is entirely down to me putting my oar in. I'm a former computer graphics and visualisation professional with a strong interest in graphic design (also as a side hustle for the company I used to run). Feeling the need to invent a group logo was therefore almost a reflex action on my part, whether or not anyone actually wanted one!
I presented a draft logo at the meeting. We discussed the name "Scottish 009 Modellers Group", which I invented just to have something to put on the logo, and concluded that we quite like it. Nevertheless the group remains "ScOONs" for short and the individual members are therefore "ScOONers". (Both terms invented by Graeme Dunbar and far too good not to use!)
The circular form, echoing the crests of some former railway companies, met with approval. We briefly discussed oval rather than circular, but settled on circular as being more versatile. It also lends itself to being turned into pin-on badges, which will undoubtedly happen at some point.
The profile of a narrow gauge loco was also appreciated, but the one I had chosen ("Doll") didn't leave enough space for putting ScOONs on the side tank. The fact that it nodded towards the Society's own logo was also appreciated. The use of a longer loco to have a longer side tank was discussed, but experimenting with that, I concluded that a shorter, taller loco was needed to fill the circle better. For the version I've presented here, I've used the profile of a Decauville 1.3 tonne 0-4-0, as used by the Society, but haven't used the same graphic. It's therefore a very deliberate tip of the hat towards the 009 Society but still doing its own thing.
The saltire background and the use of blue as the predominant colour was taken as a given by all!
So the version below (mark 4) is the current iteration. I'll play with it some more and see if it works in different contexts such as a badge or a letterhead. (We will probably also need a monochrome version.) In the mean time, comments by fellow ScOONers would be most welcome.
Ian
PS For font geeks (such as myself) the font used is Futura Heavy. (The Society's logo uses Optima Ultra Bold.)
Looks good Ian!
I can claim responsibility for ScOONers but not ScOONs. That goes back many years and i'm sorry to say I've forgotten who coined it.
ScOONers just came out of my finger tips when I was typing an email to the group. I didn't think about it at all!
Graeme
Ian, that has my vote and with the added detail on your loco there is enough to make it slightly different from the 009 logo. At least now I know where the small letters in ScOONs go. I believe it was Dave Chapman who came up with the ScOONs idea.
Regards
John G
I think it was Mr Chapman from Aviemore who invented the term Scoons. I can remember him explaining it to me about 10 years ago
Malcolm
In which case, credit to Dave Chapman for an excellent name!
We must however be clear that we are ScOONers and not scunners. (We may have to explain that to our colleagues south of the border!)
Ian
You can be both a scooner and a scunner. What do you called a Scottish 009 modeller having a bad day at his workbench? A scunnered scooner! ( ;)
That will be me banned from future meetings!
Malcolm
Oh dear, what have I started?!? ::)
(BTW Malcolm, we must meet in person before too long - I drove through Dirleton earlier this afternoon. Maybe drop me a PM?)
It was great to see a bit of 'corporate branding' ;D ;D ;D appear in Tom's presentation on Monday!
I can see I'll need to produce a set of logo variants for different backgrounds - I was under the illusion that I had retired from all that! :-\
Ian
Shouldn't there be a thistle in there somewhere, or even a touch of tartan?
David. [safely south of the border]